1. Field
The present application relates to wireless communication devices, and more particularly, to systems and methods for implementing low power modes for femto cells.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication (e.g., voice, data, multimedia services, etc.) to multiple users. As the demand for high-rate and multimedia data services rapidly grows, there lies a challenge to implement efficient and robust communication systems with enhanced performance.
In recent years, users have started to replace fixed line communications with mobile communications and have increasingly demanded great voice quality, reliable service, and low prices. In addition to mobile phone networks currently in place, a new class of small base stations has emerged, which may be installed in residential or business locations to provide indoor wireless coverage to mobile units using existing broadband internet connections. Such personal miniature base stations are generally known as an access point (AP) base station, also referred to as Home Node B (HNB) unit, femto cell, femto base station (fBS), base station, or base station transceiver system (BTS). Typically, such miniature base stations are connected to the internet and the mobile operator's network via a digital subscriber line (DSL) router or cable modem.
AP base stations or femto cells allow for cellular access where base station support is weak or unavailable (e.g., indoors, remote locations, and the like). AP base stations may be described as small base stations that connect to wireless service providers via a broadband backhaul link, such as DSL, cable internet access, T1/T3, etc., and offer typical base station functionality, such as base transceiver station (BTS) technology, radio network controller, and gateway support node services. This allows an access terminal (AT), also referred to as a cellular/mobile device or handset, or user equipment (UE), to connect to the AP base stations and utilize the wireless service. It is noted that ATs can include, for example, cellular phones, smart phones, laptops, handheld communication devices, handheld computing devices, satellite radios, navigational devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and/or any other suitable device for communicating over a wireless communication system.
There will sometimes be extended periods of time when (a) there are no ATs within the coverage area(s) associated with a given AP base station, and/or (b) each of the ATs is in an idle state. In such circumstances, if the given AP base station transmits at a high power, the given AP base station will be wasting electric power, and may be causing unnecessary interference to users being served by neighboring AP base stations and/or macro base stations. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a technique for AP base stations to selectively reduce transmit power, while at the same time transmitting those signals necessary for ATs to detect the presence of the AP base stations and receive pages in their assigned wake-up cycles.